A few quick points about this long weekend’s binge: season 4 of “Arrested Development” is best viewed as a 15-part marathon, with episodes devoted to individual characters coming together over the long haul. Spread out over 15 weeks it would have been too insubstantial to hold up. While pleasing to fans of the characters, it’s not the best work Mitch Hurwitz has given us. Even so, it’s likely to bring Netflix more dedicated users, continuing the dilution of the TV business.

On the plus side, the intersecting stories of season 4 do come together and feature callbacks, in-jokes, ridiculous puns and meta references the project has reveled in from the start. The Bluth family saga continues with plenty of hints about the forthcoming movie. (And yet, note former film exec Maeby’s suggestion that movies are dead and it’s better off as television).

On the negative side, the difficulty of scheduling the cast meant few scenes together, and an unwieldy solution. Some choppy editing and looping was distracting, also likely owing to the cast logistics. At its low point, the smugness of the Ron Howard-Brian Grazer storyline was off-putting. Meta is meta, but this was Imagine being less than imaginative.

Clever wordplay, hilarious performances and all new outrageous touchstones — from the runaway ostrich to “don’t squeeze the shaman” to giving Buster a big hand — amount to a fun ride for fans but not much to entice newcomers to the scene.